Experience lifelong pleasure in making wooden bows! This full-color book explains how you can do that with local wood types and simple everyday tools and techniques. Wood Fever is a comprehensive guide, packed with illustrations, schematics, and background information. Step-by-Step it guides you through the basic process of transforming trees and boards into beautiful solid wooden bows (selfbows). All steps are illustrated with more than 360 full-color pictures and drawings. In a clear and easy to understand fashion, you will learn all about: Design and performance Wood selection Splitting logs and preparing boards Drying wood Making bow staves and raw bows Tillering Finishing Maintenance Strings and Arrows Because Wood Fever is also loaded with background information it allows you to make your very own choices in the bow-making process. And there is much to choose! Once you know how, you will be able to make excellent bows from almost any type of wood. There truly is a bow in every tree. So, go out there, find some wood, grab some tools, and experience the same thrills as your ancestors did 10,000 years ago. Imagine: there you are, holding a piece of wood you've worked yourself, shooting feathered sticks, which close in on their goal with a whirring sound - and then hit it with a satisfying thwack. Big chance that you will never be the same again: you've got wood fever. About the author: For almost 20 years, Jan van der Veen has been making, designing, and repairing wooden bows. Through bow-building workshops and his website he also helped hundreds of bow enthusiasts to get started in the ancient craft of Bowyery. This hand book is the culmination of these many years of hands-on experience. Wood Fever contains the essence of bow making.